Birthday present for Lincoln? Oust naughty governor

These next seven weeks could be the longest Illinoisans have experienced in quite a while.

These next seven weeks could be the longest Illinoisans have experienced in quite a while.

We’re not talking about slogging through another harsh Midwestern winter or building anticipation for the start of baseball’s spring training. We’re referring to the date when Gov. Rod Blagojevich might be impeached.

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, the man who would replace Blagojevich if he is forced from office, predicted Sunday that Blagojevich would be bounced by the time we celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial birthday Feb. 12.

How fitting. Blagojevich is responsible for closing state historic sites, including some with ties to Lincoln, in his latest budget-cutting fiasco.

The governor won’t go quietly. He’ll fight, fight, fight until the end. Seems appropriate for a former Golden Gloves boxer.

The Legislature would love to knock him out, but the governor’s lawyer, Ed Genson, said Monday that there’s no clear case for impeachment.

We’d like to remind Genson that talk of impeaching the governor started long before his latest legal troubles, and evidence that the governor wasn’t doing the job “the people of Illinois hired me to do” is compelling.

The governor was reprimanded by a judge for expanding a health-care program despite lawmakers’ objections. In 2004, he ordered a $2 million plus purchase of flu vaccine from overseas that never was allowed into this country. He makes his own rules, and even then he ignores those rules.

The state routinely pays its bills late, neglects those who need help the most and has at least a $2 billion deficit. Unemployment is higher than the national average and roads are a mess.

There hasn’t been a capital construction program approved since 1999.

Over the course of his six plus years as governor, Blagojevich has signed dozens of “memorandums of understanding” on specific commitments and spending. The memorandums are written promises lawmakers sought because they didn’t trust Blagojevich.

Blagojevich had an approval rating of 23 percent a year ago. It dipped to 13 percent this year and fell to as low as 8 percent after his arrest.

“It’s been so bad that you almost have to (make an) effort to screw up as bad as he has done,” Chris Mooney, professor of political studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said last year.

Also, last year, Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Hinsdale, thought a higher power was needed to help Illinois.

“For Rod Blagojevich to improve his relationship with the General Assembly and the voters, it would almost take divine intervention,” he said.

Yet just a few months ago, the governor said he thought he was doing a good job. Only a few days ago he said he wasn’t going to quit because he’s committed to helping the people of Illinois.

The best way he could help would be to resign, or at least step aside temporarily, but it’s obvious that won’t happen.

The governor’s best — perhaps only — bargaining chip is his job. Once he loses that, he’ll have nothing left to exchange for a lesser sentence or for protection for his wife, who also is implicated in pay-to-play politics.

Blagojevich’s refusal to quit is as much in his own self-interest as the allegations he tried to profit from selling Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.

You can be sure he’ll hold on to that chip as long as possible, so it’s imperative for the 21-member impeachment committee to do its job quickly and well.

Impeachment is a political process. The General Assembly does not have to find him guilty of anything; it just needs to determine whether he still can govern.

That assumes he could ever govern in the first place, and from what we’ve seen the last few years, he has been unable to. He should be impeached and removed from office so Illinois can move forward and find ways to solve its problems.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the corruption charges against Blagojevich “would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.”

Let’s hope Lincoln is done rolling over by his 200th birthday.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.